He said: “From our experience last season, once you come out of the busy Christmas period, that’s where you can gauge better where everyone is.

“There are so many games now and once you come out of that, that’s when you can see who’s better prepared.”

Discussing being dumped out of the EFL Cup Dier added: “If you want to be a big club and you want to be challenging, then when you have a defeat, you have to bounce back strongly. That will be our aim.”